Engineering Challenges In Urban Development

The evidence continues to mount. It baffles me that some firms, particularly those in the construction, infrastructure, or related sectors, still view climate mitigation or adaptation actions as an inconvenience. Today, the EPA has published Ireland’s 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, providing an assessment of where, when and how climate risks are likely to impact. There are many risks, but it is noteworthy that it leads with wind. It says Ireland’s exposure to extreme wind is at a critical level. Consequently, making energy and communications infrastructure more resilient is a priority that needs to be addressed in the next five years. The National Climate Change Risk Assessment report also notes how other critical services and functions are severely compromised when electricity and communications systems are damaged. This was the experience across the country due to Storms Darragh and Éowyn earlier this year. The EPA added disruption and damage to buildings and transport infrastructure as a result of extreme wind, coastal erosion, and coastal flooding to the list of significant risks that must be addressed within the next five years. Ireland’s coastline is already experiencing the impacts of coastal erosion and flooding. The report warns that buildings and transport infrastructure concentrated in coastal areas in and around Dublin, the southeast, and the southwest are particularly exposed to coastal erosion and coastal flooding. The report warned that inland flooding is a key priority that needs to be addressed. The report highlights how changes in precipitation patterns will result in an increase in the frequency and severity of river, surface water, and groundwater flooding events. It says the built environment, which includes transport infrastructure and buildings, is particularly exposed because hard surfaces exacerbate flood risks. The EPA is warning that by mid-century, those risks will have increased to a critical level, with consequences for both physical and mental human health. The full report is available at the link in the comments.

Why do most Digital Twin projects fail to deliver on their promise? If you are building a DT platform now, read this carefully. Honestly, I was quite surprised too. [Findings are based on 88 peer-reviewed DT articles, 2025] The #1 culprit isn't the technology. It's not the 3D models, the data, or the AI. It's that we're ignoring people and process. We're building in a purely technical vacuum! We get obsessed with the technical specs: Real-time data representations. 3D modeling. Predictive simulations. But the research is blunt: these impressive prototypes mostly remain "small-scale lab tests". They "fall short of being implemented in actual planning or decision-making processes". Sound familiar? The solution isn't more tech. It's a socio-technical approach. The goal isn't to build a perfect, all-knowing replica. The goal is to build a tool that augments the HUMAN planning process. The research identifies 3 massive "socio-technical challenges" that must be solved for a DT to be successful. Here they are: 1. The People Problem We're not building for real people. The "major shortcoming" is that the majority of projects "only considered hypothetical stakeholders" A successful twin has to be co-created with the real citizens, local authorities, and experts who will actually use it to facilitate "consensus-building". 🖐️If it's not built with them, it won't be used by them. Simple. 2. The Process Problem Your shiny new twin doesn't fit into anyone's actual workflow. This is the crazy part now: The study found "almost ZERO contribution" to operationalizing UDTs within existing urban planning and decision-making processes🤔 Most prototypes focus on "isolated planning practices". If your twin is a separate tool that requires people to change their entire workflow, they just... won't. It must be "procedurally operationalized" embedded directly into your existing governance and planning cycles. 3. The Silo Problem Your twin only sees one part of the picture. The research shows that DT focus mainly on only one discipline, like mobility or energy or water systems. That's not a "twin," it's a dashboard. A true UDT must "bridge disciplinary silos" and create a "holistic view" by integrating data and models from every relevant department. So as DT practitioners we have to build a tool that: - Is acutally built with real stakeholders. - Plugs into their existing workflows. - Connects all their departments. That's how you bridge the gap from a "lab test" to a tool that actually has (paying) users. And....I mean humans 😂 -------- Follow me for #digitaltwins Links in my profile Florian Huemer

🔌 Grid-forming (GFM) inverters gained significant interest because of their potential to enhance grid stability and reliability, particularly as the limitations of grid-following converters became clear. However, the GFM converter faces substantial challenges in current limiting during fault conditions. The core challenge is protecting the inverter hardware from thermal damage due to excessive output currents. The ideal current limiter must act swiftly and accurately to curtail overcurrent; however, engaging the current limiter alters the entire control architecture. This typically leads to different dynamic output behaviours that may introduce small-signal instability or excessive output voltage and current harmonics.   ⚡ Current limiting methods for GFM inverters can be categorised into direct and indirect approaches. The current limiters are highlighted in red colours in the figure. Direct current limiters aim to curtail the inverter output current by manipulating the current-reference control signals or directly controlling the semiconductor switch signals. For instance, the current-reference saturation limiter dynamically scales the current-reference signal based on the maximum allowable current, ensuring that the output current does not exceed predefined limits. The other option is the switch-level current limiting method, which directly modulates the switching signals fed to the bridge. This method achieves the fastest response as it bypasses the other control loops. However, the unavoidable consequence of bypassing the control loops is the sacrifice of power quality and even controller stability, which leads to integrator windups in the hierarchical control loops.   ⚡ Indirect current limiters, on the other hand, work by manipulating voltage-reference and power-reference signals in the inverter controls. These approaches can be slower than direct methods but avoid the windup issues associated with them. For example, voltage-based current limiting reduces the voltage reference in response to overcurrent conditions, effectively limiting the output current while maintaining control over the voltage and current phasors. This method can enhance transient stability during faults but may also lead to challenges in frequency stability and post-fault recovery. The last group of limiters that has been explored are hybrid solutions that combine the strengths of both direct and indirect methods, aiming to improve reliability and stability during current-limited operations. One of the promising approaches is combining a VI current limiter and a current-reference saturation limiter. First, the saturation limiter kicks in and limits the current to Imax. After the initial phase of fault passes, the VI current limiter takes over because the threshold current for the VI current limiter is set lower than Imax. #gridforming #microgrids #powerelectronics #battery #energystorage #gridmodernization #cleanenergy #renewables

Chile’s Power Grid Collapsed: Could This Happen in Your Country? Yesterday, 90% of Chile lost power after a single failure in a 500 kV transmission line triggered cascading shutdowns. Millions were left in the dark, exposing the fragility of modern grids. What happened? 1. Metro systems stopped 2. Traffic lights failed, causing chaos 3. Mobile networks collapsed 4. Copper mines, including BHP’s Escondida, shut down Why does this matter? 1. Grid fragility is real: One weak link can bring down an entire system. 2. Industry impact is massive: Copper prices jumped as mines shut down. 3. Essential services rely on resilience: Hospitals and emergency response struggled to stay online. 4. Government intervention: A state of emergency was declared to restore order. Not the first time! Chile boasts one of the best power networks in South America, yet this isn’t the first major blackout: A. 2010: A power plant failure plunged much of Chile into darkness after an 8.8M earthquake. B. 2025 (yesterday): This was Chile’s worst blackout in over a decade, forcing a curfew and halting daily life. Why transmission networks are more critical than ever: 1. As we transition to net-zero, electricity demand is increasing, and grids are becoming more complex with high renewable penetration, electrification, and interconnections. 2. Transmission networks must be modernised and expanded to handle these changes, or grid instability will become more frequent. 3. Yesterday's blackout is a clear warning that without resilient infrastructure, achieving net-zero targets will be at risk. This isn’t the only major grid failure recently: a. Just last year, a severe blackout in South-East Europe exposed vulnerabilities in cross-border coordination. Read here: https://lnkd.in/eSBDWWMP b.  Even yesterday, I discussed the IEA’s latest report, which warns that power grids worldwide are at risk due to underinvestment and supply chain delays. Read here: https://lnkd.in/eyuJzETP Together with Prof. Aoife Foley, Chair in Net Zero Infrastructure at The University of Manchester, we are working to find innovative solutions to manage power system events like this as we move toward net-zero targets. With growing electrification and climate risks, what’s the biggest challenge to grid stability in 2025? Drop your thoughts below! #EnergyResilience #GridFailure #ChileBlackout #PowerSystems #Infrastructure #RenewableEnergy #FrequencyStability #VoltageStability #NetZero #Blackout #GridSecurity Source of image: NationalGrid

Good Insights for Urban Planning Professionals The CITIES FORUM has compiled a good guidance that challenges conventional thinking about urban planning practice. These insights move beyond technical expertise to address the human dynamics that truly drive successful urban development. Beyond Technical Skills: The Human Element Urban planning success hinges on mastering persuasion and storytelling alongside design capabilities. The most brilliant plans remain theoretical without stakeholder support. Planning professionals must navigate complex human relationships and negotiations, often in informal settings where technical prowess alone proves insufficient. Authentic Sustainability vs. Surface Solutions True sustainability requires constant advocacy for long-term decisions over expedient fixes. This represents an ongoing challenge rather than superficial green additions to projects. Planning professionals must persistently champion sustainable approaches even when facing pressure for quick solutions. The Reality of Professional Practice The emotional demands of urban planning are significant, yet the tangible impact makes the challenges worthwhile. Mentorship emerges as crucial - learning from experienced practitioners often proves more valuable than theoretical knowledge alone. This hands-on wisdom helps navigate the complexities that textbooks cannot fully capture. Strategic Decision-Making Attempting to satisfy all stakeholders typically results in mediocrity. Effective planning requires taking principled stands, even when controversial. This approach demands courage to challenge established practices rather than simply proposing visionary concepts. Sustainable Professional Practice Burnout represents a serious occupational hazard. Setting clear boundaries becomes essential for long-term effectiveness. Planning professionals must balance their commitment to community impact with personal sustainability. Genuine Community Engagement Authentic community participation involves deep listening rather than performative consultation exercises. This distinction separates meaningful engagement from checkbox exercises that fail to capture genuine community needs and aspirations. Impact Over Recognition Effective planning often occurs behind the scenes, where impact matters more than individual credit. Success frequently means enabling others to achieve community goals rather than seeking personal recognition. The Courage to Challenge Urban planning requires bravery to challenge existing systems and advocate for necessary changes. This involves questioning established practices and pushing for improvements, even when facing institutional resistance. #UrbanPlanning #CityPlanning #SustainableDevelopment #CommunityEngagement #ProfessionalDevelopment #Planning #UrbanDesign #Leadership #Mentorship #Sustainability

Have you noticed that sometimes "𝘂𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗽𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴" becomes covert displacement? Recently, I walked through a neighborhood that had been a case study in an internationally funded regeneration project. Several tactical urbanism ideas were used: new pavements, lighting, greenery... at first glance, a success. But I noticed that a local bakery that had existed a few years earlier was gone. The shop had been replaced by a trendy coffee shop. The mural painted with neighborhood children had been removed, and some other familiar faces had vanished. 𝗪𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲, 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲, 𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. As an urban planner working at the intersection of international trends and territorial development, I have witnessed the 𝘂𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 "𝘂𝗽𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴". 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 creeps in, not with bulldozers, but through beautification. Prices rise. Communities change. Identities and the character of the place fade. Many multilateral projects (#AFD #GIZ #IDB) seek greener, safer, inclusive and more resilient cities. However, equity can get lost along the way. Why? Because social safeguards are too often checklists, not principles. Because we continue to design 𝗳𝗼𝗿 people, not 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 them. Through EU-LATAM programs such as @EUROCLIMA+ and @URBACT, territorial strategies have been co-created that balance climate resilience with social justice. However, it's important to emphasize that 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻. It's about ensuring that transformation doesn't erase identity. Some of my lessons learned: Urban balance must be designed from the ground up. Plans must 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴. Understand the dynamics and study the sociocultural processes occurring within the intervention area. 🔍 Looking ahead to 2030, how do we integrate equity, not just efficiency, into urban investment? I'd love to hear more insights on this topic if you work in inclusive planning, risk management, or creating resilient spaces in Europe and Latin America. #UrbanPlanning #ResilientCities #Gentrification #EUROLATAM #EquityInPlanning #EUROCLIMA #URBACT #AFD #GIZ #IDB #UrbanJustice #InternationalCooperation #SDG11

*New Research - Free to download* https://lnkd.in/dXu4EvUg   “Understanding Net Zero Commercial Real Estate. Origins, evolution, ambition, and implementation.  Case study: Ireland.” RKD Hibernia Real Estate Group Ltd The term “Net Zero” has resulted in sustainability-directed competition in the real estate sector. This, in my opinion, is a good thing. What is less good, however, is the fact that Net Zero is simple only in its two-word nature. Its origins, evolution, and meaning for individual sectors, in individual nations are not so simple. This has created confusion. To quote Myles Allen et al. (2022): “Our understanding of Net Zero has morphed over the past 15 years from a scientific fact to a pragmatic solution to an estimation problem to an accounting target to an article of faith.” The first important note from this work is that while Net Zero sounds like a destination-based target (e.g. "Net zero by 2050"), its origins are strongly linked to cumulative carbon budgets. This means the pathway matters. A single, agreed-upon pathway for the building sector in Ireland does not exist, and so in the absence of this, we review two recently published pathways which could be adopted in Ireland. The UKNZCBS and the SBTI Building Sector. Although imperfect for Irish buildings, both importantly offer a framework which can be followed and explicitly aligned to. The challenges to achieve Net Zero are then reviewed and include skills, material, and capital constraints. Constraints which are more pertinent at a portfolio or building stock level. At a building level, “Net Zero” might be feasible but understanding how much human, material and financial resources are needed is important to enable action. On a personal note, I’d like to thank the Hibernia Real Estate Group Ltd team and in particular Neil Menzies for giving us the chance to deliver this work. RKD co-authors: Séan Hogan Rosemarie Mac Sweeney Jesse Hamman Klaudia Penkala Vishaka Reddy Mª Magdalena Llull Jack brady. Internal reviewers: Neil Menzies Hannah O Keeffe Gerard Doherty. External reviewers: Dr Tobi Elusakin Oliver Kinnane. For more detail on any of the aspects, check out the references section and relevant citations within the report. And of course - reach out to us!

Spatial Mismatch: An Overlooked Urban Planning Challenge When discussing unemployment, we often hear about skills gaps, wages, and workforce participation. But one critical factor that is often overlooked is the idea of spatial mismatch. This refers to the disconnect between where jobs are located and where workers can afford to live. 📍What Is Spatial Mismatch? The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis, which was popularized in the 1960s, highlighted how economic opportunity is as much a function of urban form as it is of labor markets. As job centers have increasingly decentralized (moving from urban cores to suburban areas) many low-income workers, particularly in cities, face growing structural barriers to employment. 🚧 How Urban Planning Shapes This Mismatch: Transit-Oriented Disconnect: Many high-growth job centers are designed around car dependency, with inadequate public transit links for workers in lower-income urban areas. Housing Policy Constraints: Zoning laws often restrict affordable, high-density, or mixed-income housing near employment hubs, forcing workers into long, expensive commutes. Land Use and Sprawl: The suburbanization of jobs, combined with restrictive urban land use policies, reduces proximity between workers and workplaces, exacerbating inequality. 🏙️ The Role of Urban Planning in Fixing the Problem Spatial mismatch is not just a transportation issue, it’s an urban planning challenge that requires a coordinated response: Mixed-Use and Inclusionary Zoning: Allowing diverse housing types near employment centers can reduce commute burdens and enhance economic mobility. High-Capacity Transit Investments: Expanding and modernizing public transit networks can bridge accessibility gaps between urban workers and suburban jobs. Strategic Job Center Development: Incentivizing businesses to locate in transit-accessible urban areas can rebalance economic geography. The intersection of land use, mobility, and workforce access should be a central focus of urban planning. If we want to create sustainable, equitable cities, we need to rethink how we structure access to jobs and not just where we build them. #urbaneconomy #urbanplanning #cities #jobs

America’s electricity grid faces unprecedented challenges. As power demand surges due to manufacturing growth, data center usage, and electrification of vehicles and buildings, our grid starts to struggle to keep up. Meanwhile, the hottest years on record and extreme weather events, driven by fossil fuels, underscore the urgent need for change. And even though thousands of MW of new clean energy projects are proposed, they're frequently stuck due to costly and time-consuming transmission system upgrades. Despite needing a 4-7% expansion in transmission capacity annually, the US is expanding at less than 1%, with new lines taking up to a decade to build. In this scenario, reconductoring existing transmission lines with advanced conductors could be a game-changer. Research from Energy Innovation, GridLab, and UC Berkeley shows that this approach can double capacity on existing rights-of-way within 18 to 36 months, helping the U.S. achieve its 90% clean energy goal by 2035. Reconductoring offers substantial short-term benefits: - it expands grid capacity - saves billions of dollars - help reducing emissions - improves resilience to extreme weather But, wait. What is reconductoring after all? Reconductoring is the process of replacing existing transmission lines with new, advanced conductors. This involves installing stronger, lighter composite cores and denser annealed aluminum conductors instead of traditional steel cores and aluminum strands. The result is a significant increase in the capacity of the existing transmission line (often doubling it!) without the need for building new infrastructure And this solution has already been successfully demonstrated: - NV Energy installed 125 miles of advanced conductors, planning more projects to handle rapid load growth. - Southern California Edison used reconductoring to reduce wildfire risks and double capacity. - Excel Energy enhanced electricity supplies to Minneapolis-St. Paul, doubling capacity and avoiding major permitting delays. However, reconductoring still faces several barriers to adoption. Firstly, there are investment incentives; utilities tend to prefer building new lines as they offer higher returns compared to reconductoring. Additionally, regulatory challenges exist since some regulators perceive advanced conductors as unnecessary expenditures. The lack of familiarity with advanced conductors also leads to misconceptions about their safety, contributing to experience gaps. By promoting and incentivizing the adoption of reconductoring we can protect consumers and the climate, contributing to a sustainable energy future. Let's seize this opportunity to modernize our grid and meet the demands of a cleaner, greener tomorrow. What is your opinion/experiences on reconductoring? Share your thoughts in the comments! #GridModernization #CleanEnergy #Sustainability

☠️ Toxic Positivity➕: How ignoring fundamental realities can harm the Energy Transition⚠️ 😀 Optimism drives innovation, but when it blinds us to systemic challenges, it becomes counterproductive. 👎 🇪🇺 Across Europe, the expansion of renewable energy sources like wind and solar has outpaced the development of grid infrastructure, leading to significant curtailment of clean energy. This not only wastes potential green power but also incurs substantial costs❗️ 🗞️ The Financial Times published quite recently an article, titled “Green energy gets switched off as power systems fail to keep up.” This article addresses the surplus of electricity production in Europe and discusses curtailment rates. 👉 Some examples: 🇬🇧 In 2024, nearly 10% of Britain’s planned wind output - among which almost 30%❗️of Northern Ireland’s wind based electricity - were curtailed 😱 🇩🇪 About 5 per cent of Germany’s renewables output was also curtailed in 2025: ➡️ In 2023, approximately 19 terawatt-hours (TWh) of renewable electricity were curtailed 😳 due to grid constraints, up from 14 TWh in 2022. ➡️ Despite this increase, associated costs decreased from €4.2 billion in 2022 to €3.1 billion in 2023, thanks to improved grid management and market conditions . In the third quarter of 2024, curtailment costs further decreased to around €522 million, reflecting ongoing efforts to enhance grid efficiency. 🎯 The waste is the result of the mismatch between the rapid rollout of weather-dependent wind and solar farms and the slower installation of cables to move electricity around, as well as the shortage of electricity storage through batteries and larger methods such as hydropower. 🎯 This is reflected in increasingly volatile short-term electricity prices, with intraday prices roiling between negatives and extreme highs in some markets in the past year. ❗️These figures underscore a pressing issue: our current infrastructure cannot accommodate the rapid growth of renewable energy. 👍 Yet, solutions exist. 🎯 By converting surplus renewable electricity into hydrogen through electrolysis, we can store and transport energy more efficiently. 🎯 Repurposing existing gas infrastructure for hydrogen use is not only faster but also more cost-effective than building new power grids. 👎 🇪🇺 However, the focus in the EU remains heavily on electrification, often sidelining hydrogen’s potential. This singular approach, driven by well-intentioned optimism, risks overlooking practical solutions that could accelerate our transition to a sustainable energy future. 🗣️ A Call for Balanced Realism: ❗️It’s time to complement our optimism with realism. Embracing a diversified energy strategy that includes hydrogen can mitigate curtailment issues, reduce costs, and enhance grid resilience❗️ ☝️ Let’s ensure our pursuit of a greener future is grounded in practical, inclusive solutions❗️